Patriot to idle 250-employee mine in West Virginia

Patriot Coal Corp. announced Tuesday that it will idle a 250-employee coal mining complex in West Virginia.

The St. Louis-based company, which is going through bankruptcy reorganization, said the shutdown of the Logan County Thermal Coal Complex at Man, W. Va., will reduced production of steam coal by approximately 2 million tons per year.

"This is an unfortunate but necessary step to align Patriot's production with expected sales," Patriot President and CEO Bennett K. Hatfield said in a statement. "Despite the substantial progress being made in the Patriot reorganization, we still have to contend with the industrywide challenge of coal prices that have fallen well below production costs at many Central Appalachian mines. Thermal coal markets are extremely weak due to low natural gas prices and costly regulatory changes that have reduced coal-fueled electricity generation capacity."

Approximately 50 employees could be placed in open positions at other Patriot locations, the company said.

Patriot permanently closed its Freedom and Bluegrass mines in eastern Henderson County last year. It also operates the Highland Mine in Union and other mines in West Virginia.